Cartridge positioner



Jluxne 10, 1952 J. C. ELMS CARTRIDGE POSITIONER igl- Patented June 10, 1952 UNITE (Granted under the act of March 3, 1883,-v as amended April 30, 1928; 370 0. G. 757) 7 Claims.

The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Goverment for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalty thereon.

My invention relates to improvements on automatic guns, particularly to a cartridge positioner providing means for aligning and separating two or more adjacent cartridges or other projectiles attached to one another by single flexible joints, or unattached one to the other, in the feedway of an automatic weapon.

Cartridges are usually fed to automatic guns of the Browning machine gun type, to which the invention is applied in the present instance though it is readily adaptable for use with other automatic guns, by means of a belt made up oi a plurality of links so connected as to form a continuous belt connecting the cartridges. The linked cartridges are advanced step-by-step until each of the cartridges reaches an extraction position. At this point, a cartridge is extracted from its engaging link by means of an extractor and is moved toward its ultimate position in the barrel of the gun. The cartridges may also be fed to the gun unattached one to the other. Since the mechanism used in advancing a cartridge and extracting it to advance it into ring position is well known in the art, this mechanism is described herein only to the extent necessary to show its cooperation with my present invention.

Belt feed mechanism using the conventional disintegrating metal link belt, however, will jam easily if the belt is distorted or exed in the at plane that passes through the axis of the cartridges, and any appreciable rearward movement of the belt with respect to the gun brings the bases or rims of the cartridges together all the way up to the last cartridge in the receiving slot of the gun. Often, when the rst cartridge moves into the receiving slot to be grasped by the fingers of the extractor which withdraws it from the belt, the base or rim of the following adjacent cartridge is in interlocking engagement with the groove just in advance of the rim on the proceeding cartridge. This may be even more common when cartridges are fed into the gun unattached to each other. Special booster devices, such as power driven notched discs for receiving the last few rounds in parallelism, are sometimes used, but these are somewhat complicated and expensive expediente as compared to the spacing device of the present invention.

The device of the invention consists of a small curved lever-pawl pivotally joined to a moving 2 link in turn pvotally joined to a non-moving piece. It is positioned in the bottom of the feeclway of the weapon, When the first orleading round moves into a position where the extractor can draw it from the cartridge belt, the cartridge depresses the curved end of the lever, raising the other or straight end and the link to form an inverted V-shaped cam which separates the base of the succeeding vadjacent cartridge so that the extractor-receiving groove cannot engage the rim or iiange of the cartridge to be withdrawn. If the cartridges are linked together by a single flexible joint, two or my devices, one operating toward the front of the cartridges, the other operating toward the rear thereof, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, will align two cartridges and separate them the maximum amount allowed by the flexible joint. If only one device is used,l the device operating toward the rear of the cartridge will separate the butt ends of the cartridegs by a definite amount, while a single device operating toward the front of the cartridges will similarly separate the noses of the cartridges. If the cartridegs are not linked together, two of my devices, one operating toward the front and the other toward the rear of the cartridges, will positively separate and align the two cartridges.

The principal object of my invention is to provide a device which will provide a means of aligning and separating two or more adjacent cartridges, attached one to the other by flexible joints, in the feedway of an automatic gun.

An important object of my invention is to provide a device which will align and separate two or more adjacent cartridges, unattached one to the other, in the feedway of an automatic gun.

Another important object of my invention is to provide a device for insertion in the feedway of an automatic gun which will prevent the grooves in the bases of succeeding adjacent cartridges becoming interlocked.

A further object of my invention is to provide a device for insertion in the feedway of anl automatic gun which will position the leading cartridge in a flexible belt so that it may be withdrawn therefrom and carried to the barrel of the gun without jamming the gun.

A still further object of my invention is to provide a device which employs a small curved leverpawl and a link pivoted thereon to be so positioned in the feedway of an automatic gun that one end of the curved lever is depressed when the leading cartridge moves into position to be withdrawn from the belt, to raise the other endof 4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said rectilinear part rests upon the bottom of said feedway.

5. A cartridge positioning device for automatic guns including means for moving cartridges into the feedway of the gun and for moving them therefrom into the barrel of the gun, comprising a stationary member removably mounted on the framework of the gun, a pawl having a curved portion, and a link pivotally connected to said member and to said pawl at the curved portion thereof, said pawl being engaged by said cartridges in their movement through said feedway in a direction from said stationary member to said pawl thereby raising the pivotal connection between said pawl and said link upon movement of a cartridge over said pawl in the aforementioned direction and providing a positive stop for the next following cartridge.

6. A cartridge separating device for use in automatic guns having an automatic feed mecha- Vnism for feeding cartridges into the feedway and for moving them into the barrel of the gun, comprising a stationary member removably mounted on the framework of the gun, a pawl having a curved portion and a rectilinear portion, a link, and means for pivotally connecting said link to said stationary member and to said pawl at its curved portion, said curved portion being raised upon engagement of said rectilinear portion by a cartridge, thereby providing a positive stop for the next following cartridge.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6 whereu in said cartridges move in said feedway in a direction from said stationary member to said pawl.

JAMES C. ELMS.

CESy CKTED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 593,228 Maxim Nov. 9, 1897 1,747,546 Janecek a Feb. 18, 1930 2,037,244 Larssen et al Apr. 14, 1936 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 871,833 France Jan. 22, 1942 

